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Talking elsewhere about Bowser's villain cred got me to thinking about the relationship between him and Mario and the actions he does.
Between kidnapping Peach and his various attempts to gain power, it honestly does seem like he's undergone villain decay. Early on in the Super Mario series, he was treated as a serious threat that had to be countered with what amounted to a mushroom-powered superhuman.
By Super Mario RPG, he and Mario are simply bickering before the real threat shows up and he has to team up with Mario.
And ever since then, for the most part, it seems all of his schemes are either centered around his stalkerish crush on Peach, annoying Mario, or both at once.
I get why they can't simply remove him from the picture: Aside from how annoying he is to them, he is still the legitimate ruler of a kingdom and has a military at his command that has proven a very credible threat in the past. If they took him out, they're looking at war from his various children. Not a good scenario.
And yet, they go karting with Bowser. They invite him to participate in sports. They invite him to play party games. You really get the feeling that when he's not kidnapping Peach or trolling Mario, the three of them are hanging out and generally friends.
Plus, the brawls themselves. Spinning Bowser in a circle to launch him? Dropping him in lava, which he has demonstrated repeated immunity to? And him accepting these as defeats? It's almost like the pair are not seriously fighting, but just having a brawl because of Bowser's latest bit of being annoying. It's almost like they're siblings.
And Peach quite clearly isn't interested in either of them romantically, yet she constantly puts up with Bowser kidnapping her and Bowser and Mario brawling over her.
And that's when the idea occurred to me. They are siblings. Not of blood, but after all of the things they have done together, the pair have gone from sworn enemies to blood brothers. When there isn't a serious threat, they act as they always will; Bowser is an annoying troll, Mario rolls his eyes and heads to kick Bowser's rear again.
Peach fits in because I think she is entertained by it all. Ruling a kingdom has to be boring most of the time. And she has repeatedly shown she can hold her own in a fight, so there's really no reason for her to play damsel as she does. Unless, of course, she does it because whatever Bowser's latest scheme is, it'll be entertaining. Bowser's kidnappings and Mario's rescues break up the monotony of ruling the Mushroom Kingdom.
And the rest of the time they drop the facade of their long-term relationships and focus just on enjoying the time they spend together. Like any family would.